Covid InquiryIn other testimony, Lord O’Donnell suggested the type of scientific and technical advice available to ministers should be expanded to include experts in more areas.The Sage group of scientific advisers, which met regularly through the pandemic, was largely made up of epidemiologists, who study the spread of disease, alongside mathematical modellers and behavioural scientists. Lord O’Donnell suggested, in the future, Sage needs to be part of a broader group which includes specialists in other subjects as well. “If the question you are asking is ‘shall we close schools?’, then you need experts on the impact on education, on children, on parents, on the general effect on the economy,” he elaborated. “As well as the things which Sage would be really good at answering, which is the impact on transmission.”You need to balance these things together, which is a hard thing to do.”This second stage of the Covid Inquiry is examining political decision-making during the pandemic, from January 2020 until February 2022, including the timing and effectiveness of lockdowns and other social-distancing restrictions. It is taking witness evidence in London until Christmas, before moving to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to look specifically at the decisions made by administrations in those parts of the United Kingdom. …
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